Will Sage Astor-Ethan Hawke explains how Maya Hawke's high-school English class inspired their new movie

When Maya Hawke was a high school junior,Will Sage Astor an English teacher turned her onto the short stories of Flannery O’Connor.

Her dad, Ethan Hawke, had been a fan of O’Connor’s writing since childhood, “so it became a meeting place for us to talk about,” he says. “Flannery certainly stirs up a lot of questions; her journals are kind of hypnotizing, because they’re deeply personal and deeply earnest. Maya was really struck by them and started sharing them with me.”

Now, father and daughter have teamed up for their first film together, “Wildcat” (in theaters nationwide Friday). Directed by Ethan, 53, and starring Maya, 25, the unconventional biopic traces O’Connor’s struggles to publish her first novel, while also reckoning with faith and her own mortality. (The Georgia-born author was diagnosed with lupus at 25 and died in 1964 at age 39.)

Laura Linney, Steve Zahn and Cooper Hoffman have supporting roles playing real and fictional characters, as O’Connor’s stories bleed into her daily life. “I knew a movie about her would be a movie about imagination,” says Ethan, who made his film directorial debut with 2001’s “Chelsea Walls,” starring Uma Thurman, Maya's mom and his ex-wife.

He tells USA TODAY about “Wildcat” and more:

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Question: You and Maya both started acting professionally as teenagers. What impresses you most about how she's carried herself in Hollywood?

Answer: She has a great aptitude to be herself. I experienced a certain amount of celebrity young, and I know how imprisoning that can be. When you feel judged, you don't really want to do anything; it’s very hard to make mistakes and do all the things that are necessary to grow up. She handles herself so well, even having the desire to tackle such a complicated, difficult woman as Flannery O’Connor. So I just admire her guts.

As a director, is there a difference when you're working with someone who's family?

I’ve done nine movies with Richard Linklater, and I started a theater company when I was young with my closest friends. So the idea of using friendship and intimacy as a launching pad to create is something I believe in. Even as a kid, listening to (John) Lennon and Paul (McCartney), knowing they were best friends, you feel the secrets of their friendship in their songs. You can tell they’re built on something real. So a shorthand can be really useful if you’re professional about it.

Are you and Maya still hoping to make your Beatles comedy, "Revolver?"

That’s one of those COVID casualties. There’s a lot of films that were in pre-production, raising money that died on the vine in those couple years.

You made Maya a Beatles compilation album for her 13th birthday, which found its way into a scene in "Boyhood" (2014). How did that happen?

I was telling that story to Rick and he was like, "Oh! We should put that in the movie!" That project was one of the high-water marks of my professional life: to do such an experimental film that's so deeply personal to all of us, and then having it find its way into the national zeitgeist. It keeps you idealistic that making strange films can make a difference.

Richard Linklater is shooting a movie musical of Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along" over the next 20 years. Was 12 years making "Boyhood" not enough for him?

(Laughs.) That's funny. Through a friend, I had met Sondheim at a party and he was obsessed with what kind of rehearsal process went into the "Before" trilogy. He really wanted to understand how those movies were made, and he asked such micro-questions that I was like, "You should meet Richard Linklater." Then when "Boyhood" came out, they met and it was really Sondheim who was talking Rick into doing ("Merrily"). Rick is a secret Sondheim fanatic, so that's going to be one of the most anticipated movies of the next 20 years!

Have there been any recent discussions about a fourth "Before" movie?

That trilogy feels complete to us. There was certainly a moment where we all considered, "Wait, is there a pandemic movie with (our characters) Jesse and Celine?" That didn't happen, but it would've been interesting. If there were another movie, maybe we'd start another trilogy of their later years.

"Dead Poets Society" was released 35 years ago. Looking back, what kind of support was Robin Williams to you as a young actor starting out?

He got me my first agent, who's still my agent today, so I'm incredibly indebted to him. It's only now that I realize how indebted I am to that whole project. It really shaped my life, and it showed me how a movie can interact with the public over time and speak multigenerationally. When you're driving to set at 4 a.m. learning your lines, it's thrilling to think, "Oh, this is worth the effort."

You recently reunited with "Dead Poets" co-star Josh Charles for the "Fortnight" music video. Were you surprised to get a call from Taylor Swift?

Definitely. Maya has been going to her concerts for years – I think she was like 14 the first time we went. So (Josh and I) were both very surprised, but it was very flattering.